Dreams of an Absolution
by The All Real Numbers Symbol
Summary: Vincent returns to the darkness, this time looking for something he lost long ago. What he found was something completely different. The blonde girl, dressed in white, was running from the darkness when she ran into him. Now she'll need his help to escape from Organization XIII and make her way back to DiZ and Riku. Sequel to Into the Light. Not slash or romance.


**Dreams of an Absolution**

* * *

**Summary**: Vincent returns to the darkness, this time looking for something he lost long ago. What he found was something completely different. The blonde girl, dressed in white, was running from the darkness when she ran into him. Now she'll need his help to escape from Organization XIII and make her way back to DiZ and Riku. Sequel to Into the Light. Not slash or romance.

**Genre**: Drama/ Adventure

**Rating**: T

**Disclaimer**: I'm holding out (a very faint) hope that Vincent gets to appear in KHIII.

**[A/N:]** I'm not really shifting between time and space and perspectives this time, so I expect this one to be simpler to read. Huge thanks to the anonymous reviewer who left me a kind review for _Into the Light_!

This story is set after the events of Chain of Memories but before KHII. You don't have to read _Into the Light_ to understand this story, all you need to really know is that Vincent has joined the gang from Radiant Garden after the events of that story and that Leon and Vincent and the others have gone home, and are now beginning the process of rebuilding Radiant Garden. However, if you want full details as to how we got here, you do have to read _Into the Light_. If you do read it, reviews would be appreciated! But anyways, on with the show…

* * *

"So who's ready?" Cid asked as he dealt the cards across the table. Outside, the wind was driving the rain against the front windows of the bar.

Tifa served new drinks and refilled others, before retreating back behind the bar to talk to another customer.

Around the table, Leon, Vincent, and Cloud, who had arrived in Traverse Town a few weeks earlier and was apparently a friend of Tifa's.

Cid finished dealing the cards and set the rest down in the middle of the table.

"What are we up to?" Cloud asked as they picked their cards up.

"Ten munny." Cid replied.

All of them put ten munny in the center of the table, and the game began.

Leon was the first to fold, before the second raise. "I'm out." He said, dropping a one and a three card onto the table.

Cid folded halfway through the game, leaving Vincent and Cloud to oppose each other.

The rain outside had let up by the time the pair ended up setting their cards down on the table.

Cloud had a straight. Vincent had a flush.

"It would be nicer playing with the pair of you," Cid noticed as Vincent collected his winnings, "If either of you had some kind of tell."

"We like being imperceptible." Cloud responded.

"Cloud, is your game done? I thought you were going to help me close up." Tifa called from the kitchen.

"I gotta get going." Cloud said as he pushed his chair back and stood up. "See you guys later."

"What time is it?" Leon asked.

"Quarter to eleven." Vincent replied.

Leon winced. "I'm on patrol. I better go too. Are you heading out tonight, Vincent?"

"Yes. I'll see you when I get back." Vincent replied.

Cid clapped him on the shoulder. "Try not to take ten years coming back this time, okay Vince?" In the few months since their return to Hollow Bastion, he had become a close enough friend of Vincent's to move from last name basis to nicknames.

"As long as Maleficent doesn't show up again, I'm not expecting many problems." Vincent replied.

"We'll see you when you get back." Leon said as he headed out the door.

Vincent and Cid followed a moment later. Cid turned and went towards his shop, while Vincent kept going straight, towards the outskirts of Hollow Bastion.

He was almost out of town when he heard footsteps behind him. "Vincent! Where are you going?"

He turned, and to his decided lack of surprise, saw Yuffie behind him. "I'm going back into the darkness." He explained.

"Did you forget what happened last time you did that?"

"Yuffie, I had gone to the darkness at least a hundred times before that happened. I'm hardly afraid of it. I'm not expecting much trouble now that Maleficent is gone." Vincent told her.

"Well…you better come back! And not ten years from now, either!" She demanded.

He smirked. "I certainly don't plan on staying away ten years."

"Hm. Okay then." Yuffie said reluctantly. "I'll see you when you get back." She waved at him, then turned and skittered back towards the town.

Vincent watched her go, and then looked up at a rocky outcropping some distance away. Leon was on top of it, holding his Gunblade.

He didn't see Vincent at first; he was scanning the far horizon, keeping a lookout for Heartless. It was the gold glint of Vincent's gauntlet that caught the corner of his vision and made him swing around suddenly. He relaxed when he saw it was only the gunslinger, and lifted a hand in a brief wave.

Vincent returned the gesture, then turned to face away from the town before he summoned Chaos' powers and opened a portal to the darkness. Then he stepped through it was gone.

* * *

There was no sense of time in the darkness, unless you happened to be a creature of darkness.

Sometimes Chaos and the other demons were very handy to have. Not that Vincent would have ever said that out loud, though.

In one of the Corridors of Darkness, about eight hours after he had left Hollow Bastion, Vincent came across a few Shadow Heartless, which he easily dispatched.

There were hardly any sounds in the Darkness. The Darkness itself procured a noise similar to a hum at times and the Heartless sometimes made noises which varied based on the type of Heartless they were.

The sound of someone running and gasping for breath however, was something new. Not sure if this was some new trick of the darkness or not, Vincent pulled out Cerberus and aimed it in the direction the sounds were coming from.

A moment later a blonde-haired young woman wearing white burst out of the darkness, followed by five Neoshadows. She saw him, and stumbled to a stop, mostly out of shock.

Vincent took aim with Cerberus and fired on the Neoshadows.

When they were all gone, the girl took in the tall figure dressed in black and red and asked, "Who…are you?"

"Vincent Valentine."

"Why are you here?"

"I'm looking for something I lost to the darkness, a long time ago," he replied evasively. "And who are you?"

"I'm Namine." She said. "I…we were attacked by some Heartless, and Riku told me to run. The only way to get away was to go further into the darkness, so I did. But they followed me and now I'm lost." She paused for a moment, then looked up at him. "Um, do you know where Twilight Town is?"

Vincent paused and prodded Chaos, who had been sleeping in the back of his mind, awake. Then he repeated the question mentally so the demon could hear it.

_**It's in the Realm Between.**_

_Aren't we in the Realm Between now?_

_**Yes.**_

_So then we can presumably help Namine find her way home?_

_**Probably.**_

Namine stood by, patiently waiting as her rescuer seemed to have spaced out after the last question she had asked him

A moment later Vincent told her, "I don't know for certain where it is, but I'll help you find it again."

Namine smiled. "Thank you, Mr. Valentine."

"Just Vincent will do."

* * *

For some time after that the pair walked on in silence. Eventually, Namine began to lag behind, and Vincent stopped to let her catch up.

He wasn't anywhere near tired, but he could see she was, so he asked, "How long have you been in the darkness?"

"I don't know." She replied. "I was running."

They went on a little further, only to be ambushed by some Dusks. All of the Dusks Vincent quickly dispensed with, thanks to Cerberus.

Scanning as far out into the darkness as he could see, Vincent could detect no more Heartless. "Let's stop here for a little while." He told Namine, who nodded gratefully.

Vincent knelt and pressed a hand to the ground. A moment later, a circular barrier of energy sprang up around them. "That should hold the darkness back."

"You know magic?" Namine asked as she sat down and drew her knees up to her chest.

"A little." He replied, glancing at her. "Are you cold?"

"Just a bit." She told him.

Vincent unbuckled his cape and handed it to her.

"Oh, you didn't have to." Namine said as she took it gratefully and wrapped herself up in it. "But thank you."

Vincent nodded. "You might want to get some sleep." He suggested. "We'll be moving on in a couple of hours."

She nodded and curled up near the edge of the circle. After a moment, Vincent settled down across from her on the other side of the circle.

* * *

"Kiyaaaa!"

Vincent bolted awake, reaching for Cerberus as he sat up and looking around for the attacker. All he saw was Namine sitting with her legs drawn up to her chest again, shivering. "What happened?!" He demanded.

"I…I…I'm sorry!" She exclaimed. "I didn't mean to scream. Nothing happened." She added, in a quieter tone of voice.

"Did you have a bad dream?" Vincent asked as he put his gun away.

"Uh, no. You did." She admitted after a moment. "I…My powers let me see people's memories, and … I saw yours. I'm sorry!" She added quickly. "I wasn't trying to pry, but I heard something, and when I woke up, you were dreaming about what had happened to you, the experiments and Maleficent, and I saw it."

"Oh."

"DiZ says I can only see memories of those connected to Sora somehow. You've fought him before, haven't you? But not willingly."

"That's correct."

"I've been helping Sora. Organization XIII made me take his memories apart, and now I'm putting them back together for him." Namine said, and then repeated, "I'm sorry if I'm prying," Before huddling further down behind his red cloak.

"You didn't pry on purpose." Vincent replied wryly. "So you're forgiven. Are you ready to move on?"

"Yes." Namine scrambled to her feet as Vincent stood up, and then she handed him his cloak back. After he had buckled it back on, Vincent took down the barrier and they continued on their way.

* * *

For two more hours they walked on through the darkness, encountering at worst a few sporadic Shadow Heartless. Nothing else came out of the darkness to attack them.

Until, in their third hour of travel, the darkness exploded…

Vincent and Namine had been walking along silently, when suddenly dozens of Neoshadows came bursting out of the darkness and came at them. This was not like other attacks, where the numbers of Heartless had been small.

And in the midst of it all, there was a tall man dressed in a black coat, with a patch over one eye, a scar on his face, and grey-streaked hair pulled back into a ponytail. He carried two guns, and when he spotted Vincent, he opened fire.

Namine had been trying to get out of the fray; per Vincent's instructions, she was to find someplace relatively safe and wait there for him, when suddenly enormous playing cards came sliding out of the darkness and surrounded her. "Vincent!"

He turned in time to see what had happened, but at that moment, the cloaked man opened fire on him.

Vincent dodged some of the bullets, allowing them to hit the Neoshadows. Others he shot out of the air before returning fire. But while he was trading fire with the cloaked man, the Neoshadows were still attacking him.

"Vincent!" Namine called again.

He shot another Neoshadow and turned to help her, but the circle of cards opened up and she was gone.

"Well that was easier than I expected." The cloaked man remarked as Vincent continued to fend off the Heartless.

"Who are you?" Vincent demanded, aiming Cerberus at the man.

"My name is Xigbar, and I am Number Two, the Freeshooter of Organization XIII." He replied.

"Where's Namine?"

"She's with us now. Let's just say…she's fixing Sora's memories and that doesn't work for us." Xigbar said.

"I don't care that it doesn't fit your plans," Vincent snarled as he cocked his gun. "Where is she?"

Xigbar smirked. "You seem like you know what you're doing in the darkness. Why don't you try finding her yourself?"

A moment later he vanished, and Neoshadows attacked again.

Vincent opened fire on the Heartless, dodging their attacks and pausing only to reload.

The second time he stopped to reload, a Neoshadow lunged at him from behind. Before it could land an attack on him, another figure jumped out of the shadows and used a sword to cut the Heartless down.

The figure was wearing a black coat similar to the one Xigbar had been wearing, and his sword looked like a bat wing. "Where's Namine?"

"I'm a little curious about that myself." Vincent said, taking aim at more Heartless.

The newcomer didn't pursue the matter, instead jumping off into the fray. But when the Heartless had all been defeated, he came back.

For a moment the two of them sized the other up. Then the teenager in the coat spoke. "Namine was with you."

"Who are you?" Vincent asked.

"My name is Riku."

"Working with DiZ?"

"Yes."

Vincent nodded. "She was with me. I was trying to help her find her way back to Twilight Town. Then Organization XIII showed up."

"Who are you?"

"You can call me Vincent."

"What a shame. I finally get to go out on a real mission for the Organization, and what do I get? Some kid running around in the darkness with a blindfold on, and some gent dressed like a vampire." An accented voice cut in.

"Luxord," Riku said, turning around to face the Nobody. "Where's Namine?"

"Somewhere you won't find her." Luxord replied. "We can't allow you or her to interfere in Organization business."

"We're going to find her." Riku warned.

"Good luck to you, then." Luxord said. "As for me, I have a mission to think of." Then he was gone.

Riku sighed, annoyed. "I don't know why the Organization thinks they can keep getting away with things like this. I can track her, but that never seems to occur to then."

"If you can track her, I suggest we get going." Vincent said.

By unspoken consent, the two of them headed off further into the darkness, tracking Namine.

* * *

"No! Let go of me!" Namine pulled back and managed to jerk her arm out of Xigbar's grip.

"Don't go running off, poppet." He warned her. "You're coming back to the Castle that Never Was with us."

Namine didn't reply, and Xigbar went on. "We can't allow you to repair the Keyblade Wielder's memories. So you are cordially invited to be our guest at the Castle for a little while."

Namine ignored him and settled down a few feet away and pulled out her sketchbook. She flipped it open to a black page and began to sketch.

Within a few minutes one could begin to see in the picture a tall man with long black hair…

* * *

If Vincent knew how to find his way in the darkness, Riku knew even more. The two had traveled in silence, but quickly. Riku had explained once that he could track Namine by her scent, and Vincent had nodded and they had continued on their way.

Now Riku slowed to a stop. "They were here." He said. "But they left."

"How long ago?" Vincent asked.

"Not long. The scent is still relatively fresh. Both of the Nobodies were here with Namine." Riku told him.

"Then let's go quickly. We might be able to catch up with them."

Riku nodded and set off through the darkness at a quick pace, Vincent right behind him.

* * *

Namine stumbled and fell to the ground, in as much as there was any ground in the darkness. Luxord had returned earlier with the news that Riku was tracking them and Vincent was with him, and so Xigbar had taken her and moved further into the darkness.

She wondered how close they were, and hoped they were gaining on the members of Organization XIII rapidly.

The new corridor of darkness looked remarkable similar to the old one. Namine moved as far away from the cloaked men as she dared before sitting down and opening her sketchbook again. Once Xigbar had been certain that she wasn't working to try and piece any of Sora's memories back together, he had allowed her to keep the book.

She flipped it back open to the picture of Vincent she had been drawing and resumed sketching his cloak.

_Hurry, please_, she thought, as though the picture could hear her wish.

* * *

"They're here." Riku said, coming to a stop outside what looked to a casual observer like just another corridor of darkness. "Namine's with them."

"Are you sure?" Vincent asked as he came to a stop next to Riku.

"Positive." Riku replied. "And they haven't noticed us yet, either."

"Good." Vincent said, loading a new bullet cartridge into Cerberus. "Then let's retrieve Namine."

* * *

She didn't know how long they had been there. Luxord and Xigbar had disagreed about whether or not it was safe to continue on to the World That Never Was, what with Riku and Vincent on their tail.

She had begun to get the impression that it was Riku who worried them the most, and though she kept a straight face – she was afraid not too, because what if they noticed her laughing and asked about it? – she couldn't help but be amused by the thought that they were sorely underestimating Vincent.

Namine had seen some of his memories and that gave her a fairly good idea of what Vincent was capable of. He was at least as dangerous as Riku, even if she'd never once seen him use more than bullets on the Heartless that followed them.

* * *

"Why did you come to the darkness?"

Riku considered the question as they approached the corridor. "I hurt a good friend very badly, because my heart was weak. I'm trying to fix that mistake. You?"

A thousand things flashed through his mind, the memories of the experiments and the monsters and everything that had happened, long before Radiant Garden had fallen to the darkness. Through them all, one face stayed in view, of a woman with blue eyes and long brown hair, the one who had been lost to him so long ago, and one question: _Why_?

"I suppose you could say I'm looking for an absolution." Vincent replied.

They both paused for a moment, then Riku pulled out his sword and they both jumped forward, into the near path of darkness…

* * *

Namine had begun to creep away as much as she dared. If she could make it out of here, then maybe she could find Vincent and Riku…

"Where do you think you're going?" A voice behind her rang out mockingly. Xigbar had seen her trying to sneak off and come to put a stop to it.

Namine turned around to face him. "I'm leaving." She said, and though she was scared, her voice didn't shake.

"And how are you planning to do that?" Xigbar asked. "We aren't letting you go and your friends aren't here yet."

"You're not going to win." Namine warned him, taking a few steps back as she did. The darkness swirled behind her and then she walked into something. She gasped, but before she could do anything, a hand came to rest on her left shoulder. A cool hand, covered in gold-tone metal…

"Vincent!" She gasped, then, "Riku!"

Sure enough, Vincent had come in through the darkness behind her. He stood there, his gauntlet-ed hand still resting lightly on her shoulder and holding Cerberus with the other.

Next to him, Riku dropped through the darkness and waited, his sword held at the ready. "She comes with us." He announced.

Xigbar scowled and pulled out his guns. Vincent saw what he meant to do and shoved Namine behind him before taking aim with Cerberus and returning fire.

A line of playing cards came sliding out of the darkness a moment later, aiming for Vincent. Riku cut them down with his sword before lunging at Luxord who had appeared out of the darkness as well.

The problem with a gunfight in this world of darkness was there was no cover. There was nothing to hide behind, nothing to put between yourself and your opponent.

So Vincent and Xigbar kept moving, stopping only long enough to fire at each other or, in Vincent's case, shoot his opponent's bullets out of the air, much to Xigbar's unending frustration.

But though Vincent was a better shot, he had to stop and reload, while Xigbar's guns held more bullets and reloaded in almost an instant.

Vincent dodged more bullets before returning fire. One of Xigbar's bullets hit him in the leg and he stumbled.

The bullet had missed the bone and gone through, but he was still bleeding. His stumbling, though, had caused Xigbar to pause, thinking that the bullet had hit higher or done more damage and that maybe the fight was over.

Vincent seized the opportunity and returned fire. Several of the bullets found their target, sending Xigbar stumbling back.

Riku had gone after Luxord, dodging around the enormous playing cards flung at him before landing several blows from his sword. The Nobody transformed himself into a playing card and slipped under Riku's feet before springing up on the other side of him and resuming the attack.

Riku blocked some cards and dodged the others, before jumping up to Luxord and landing a combo hit on him. Luxord blocked the next blow with another playing card, and Riku countered by slicing through it.

Within a few minutes, it became clear that Riku and Vincent had the upper hand in their battles.

"Forget it." Xigbar decided, and called to his comrade, "Fall back."

They both did, falling into a dark portal that had opened behind them. It closed as soon as they had gone through.

Neither Vincent nor Riku attempted to follow them. Instead they stayed where they were and watched the Nobodies leave. Namine ran up to them a moment later. "Thank you! I knew you would come for me!" She told them.

Riku nodded. "Yeah. Let's get back to Twilight Town."

* * *

Again by unspoken consent, Vincent accompanied the pair back to Twilight Town, and up to the old manor where they lived. But he stopped outside the gate.

"You should come in with us, Vincent." Riku said, walking past him and up to the gate, which he pushed open. "You're helped us a lot; we can at least give you some potions or something to make your trip home easier."

"Yes, come in Vincent." Namine added.

"Alright, but just for a little while. I need to go soon." Vincent finally conceded.

Riku grinned. "I'll go tell DiZ we're back. Namine, show him where the items are stashed, please." He said as they entered the house.

"Sure." She replied.

Riku vanished down the stairs and Namine turned towards Vincent. "Riku's got some potions and things stashed away here. Let me show you."

She led him through some of the rooms on the first floor until she came to one that was full of cabinets and cupboards.

"These are the items." She said, pulling open the door of a cupboard, and he looked at the potions, elixirs, shards, and crystals within.

For a moment he looked through them, then he pulled out one crystal of Twilight. "Where do these items come from?" He asked.

"Riku finds them." Namine replied. "He keeps some of them and trades the rest for things we need. There's a lot in here right now, so I think he'll be trading soon."

Vincent looked down at the gray star-shaped crystal he was holding, and said, "This."

"Just that?"

" Just this." He tucked it into his cloak and turned away.

"Vincent?"

"Mm?" He paused, not turning around.

"Thank you."

"Yeah. Don't mention it."

* * *

**~ Epilogue ~**

Yuffie yawned and made her way downstairs and into the kitchen. Someone was already up; she could smell eggs frying.

She stumbled into the kitchen, where Vincent was chopping peppers. "Good morning Yuffie."

"Good morning Vincent." She replied as she yawned again and pulled the fridge door open, and then she slammed it shut again as she realized what she had said. "Vincent! When did you get back?!"

"Early this morning." He replied as he picked up the cutting board and dumped the peppers into the omelet.

"I'm glad you're back." Yuffie said as she peeked around to look into the large frying pan on the stove. "That's a big omelet. Are you making enough for all of us?"

"Well I'm certainly not eating the whole thing." Vincent replied as he set the cutting board down on the counter and pulled a clean washcloth from out of one of the drawers. He pulled open the drawer under that and took out a spray bottle of clear liquid. He turned so that the spray wouldn't get into the food, then sprayed his gauntlet down and began wiping it down with the washcloth. "Where's Leon?"

"Cloud's with Aerith and Tifa and they've been running the watches the last two days so Leon can have a break. He's sleeping right now."

"I'm sure he appreciates it." Vincent remarked, wiping down the articulated joints on his gauntlet.

"He does." Yuffie confirmed. "But we'll have to wake him up soon – I think he's going to want some breakfast."

"I'll wake him up." Vincent said, dropping the washcloth down on the cutting board

"What should I do?"

"Set the table." He called back as he started up the stairs.

"Hey!"

Vincent paused halfway up the stairs and waited for her to continue.

"Did you find what you were looking for in the darkness?" Yuffie asked.

"No." He replied as he continued upstairs. "But I don't think I need what I was looking for anymore..."

**~X~**

"I'm sorry Superior. We weren't able to bring the witch back. Riku and some gunslinger rescued her before we could."

Xigbar had never appreciated having to come to Xemnas' study and report failures, and this time was no different.

"Forget it." Xemans said. "My plans have changed. We need the Keyblade Wielder to awaken and destroy as many Heartless as possible, to gather enough to offer to Kingdom Hearts."

Xigbar nodded and took his leave. As he headed back to his own chambers, he was annoyed. It was bad enough to be beaten, but beaten by someone who could outshoot him was an outrage.

Tomorrow he would go do some more target practice on any Heartless he could find.

_And next time I meet you,_ he thought, picturing Vincent's face in his mind. _We'll see who's better…_

**~X~**

"And how are things going after your excitement in the darkness?" DiZ asked, not unkindly, as he entered Namine's room. It had been strange to hear his knock at the door, as he rarely bother to come so far.

"They're going well." Namine replied, looking up from the sketch she was working on. If Organization XIII didn't want Sora to get his memories back, then she would have to work harder to make sure that he did get them back. This wasn't an excuse to be careless, though; all the memories must be properly restored.

"Good. I'm pleased that everything turned out well." DiZ said. "I'll leave you too your work." He turned to go, but as he did, his eyes came to rest on a two new pictures hanging on Namine's wall and stopped. "Namine?"

"Hm?" She looked up from her drawing expectantly.

"Who is the man in these pictures?"

"Someone I met in the darkness. His name is Vincent." She replied. "Why?"

So it was him, still around after so long, DiZ mused. He hadn't changed at all…

"No reason." He replied as he continued on his way out.

Namine shrugged and turned her attention back to her drawing. There was a memory that she was trying to fix that Sora had of a time in Traverse Town when he'd fought a monster called Chaos …

* * *

**[A/N:]** Not one hundred percent sure where this came from. but I'm glad to show Vincent hanging out with some more Kingdom Hearts characters! I hope the plot was decent, but if you see a weak point, please don't hesitate to let me know. I may be able to fix it.

Also, about the cover for this story, this is the first time I've done a cover with pictures of the characters. I don't own either of those images but I do (I Guess) own the picture I made with those two images. If I'm doing something wrong there, please let me know so I can fix it or take it down. I'm a bit confused by story covers anyways.

But I hope you enjoyed the story, and please leave me a review and let me know what you thought!


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